IN INTERVIEWS to promote his new film Good Night, and Good Luck, a stern George Clooney has instructed journalists that we have "a duty to speak truth to power".

He's right. If I had been sensible, I'd have given-up this political guff and become a showbiz reporter years ago. The editor would then have paid me to fly to the Golden Globes in Los Angeles. And yesterday when Clooney picked-up his award for best supporting actor, I could have taken him at his word and bellowed, "Oi, George! You've got a pretty face but no talent."

As it is, I am stuck in London writing about the bloody Private Finance Initiative.

TO George Clooney's Syriana, whose incomprehensible plot left me moreshocked than awed. If I understood him, he was trying to say that America's policy in the Middle East was "all about oil".

Ah, so that's why America insisted on sanctions on Iraqi oil from 1991to 2003. That's why Bush spent an enormous amount of blood and treasure overthrowing Saddam Hussein rather than allowing his friends in the Texas oil industry to cut a lucrative deal.

What got to me afterwards was that the reviewers ignored Clooney'sairbrushing of history and praised his "bravery". Dear me, it is not brave in liberal Hollywood to oppose Bush. The brave thing to do in liberal Hollywood is to make a film supporting American policy, which is why no one does.

Clooney, on the other hand, is behind Not On Our Watch whose website advocates several practical and sensible things to do to improve the situation in Darfur. Their home page says (among other things) this:

ADVOCATING FOR ACTION. Not On Our Watch will work to focus international attention on the continuing carnage in Darfur, encouraging governments and international organizations to take meaningful action to protect the vulnerable, marginalized, and displaced. Where governments have remained silent, we are committed to working to render otherwise invisible atrocities, visible.

That, I believe, is "speaking truth to power." I hope our boy writes a careful riposte to Conor Foley setting him and myself right as to Nick's ongoing commitment to Darfur. We wouldn't want him outdone by a pretty boy with no talent now, would we?